It may seem like ages have passed since you signed up for your first email newsletter – at the time it felt novel and high-value, but now your inbox is so cluttered with junk it’s starting to look like, well, maybe your actual mailbox.

That said, the data proves that medical practices still make a lot of money with email campaigns to prospective and prior patients, meaning that email marketing is still relevant even in the second decade of the 21^st century. For a refresher on the best practices for email marketing these days, our team is here to help.

Why Email Marketing Still Matters

Despite the nearly universal experience of having a disorganized and spam-ridden digital inbox, everyone uses email every day. Many of us check multiple accounts multiple times a day, our attention focused in different ways at different points in our routine.

This means there’s still lots of potential to put your name and your practice’s brand in front of eyes that are paying attention, and therefore gain awareness of your practice with minimal effort or expense on your end. There are a few more reasons why email marketing is still an effective tool in today’s digital marketing landscape.

Email is Targeted

Assuming you’ve collected good lead data and have former patients segmented by procedure type, interest level, and even dollar amounts spent, you’ve got specific audiences that will be receptive to specific messages ready to be reached out to with emails. This allows you to hone your efforts on people who are more likely to return and spend money at your practice, versus sending 10,000 cold emails out to addresses you have no idea whether they’re interested or not.

Email is Easy to Measure

Views and click rates are simple and reliable ways to know whether your email worked or fell short. Subscription rates and unsubscribe rates also inform you whether a specific campaign is effective or off-putting. Using these easily gathered metrics can inform not only your email content but also other marketing content as well.

Email Starts a Conversation

One seemingly forgotten aspect of email marketing is that when designed well, emails are interactive with brands. They ask questions of readers, and invite them to take any action beyond the big leap of calling the office for an appointment. It can be as simple as inviting them to read a recent blog post or watch a video – whatever the interaction, it’s part of a conversation they’re having with you, just without you in the room. This builds trust and connection that can make a big difference in their bigger decisions later on.

Does Your Email Marketing Stand Up?

Best practices have shifted over the last several years as email habits have changed and people’s expectations of medical practices like yours have as well. Keep the following metrics in mind as you evaluate whether your email marketing is having the impact it could be.

Is Your Subscriber Base Growing or Shrinking?

You have built-in email subscribers for the patients who visit your office. They’ve already taken the biggest leap of all, scheduling a consultation or paying for a procedure, so why not keep them in the loop on what’s going on?

If your subscriber base, with all your in-office appointments and online sign-up forms, isn’t growing, it’s likely that you’re doing something wrong with your emails. Maybe you’re sending too many; maybe too few. Maybe the content isn’t relevant. Whatever the case, keep an eye on your subscriber count and perform an overhaul if things aren’t going the right way.

How High is Your Open/Click Rate?

It’s a fact that not every single person will open every single email you send out, much less take an action, but if your open rates are below 1% or even 5% and your click rates barely register, it could be a sign that you’re not meeting subscribers where they are.

Take a look at your highest-performing emails. What were the subject lines? How were they formatted? How long were they? Did they have a special offer or update about the practice or a procedure? Analyzing what’s worked well can help you direct your efforts toward email content and promotions that people will pick up on and payout for.

Do Your Emails Match Your Brand?

Your brand is more than just a color scheme or a logo, it’s also your voice. It connects the literal voices people hear in your office, on the phone, and in your emails. If your emails come across as noticeably different than the tone people expect to hear from a medical professional or your practice, in particular, they’re likely not going to perform as well as they could.

Have your email marketer follow brand guidelines diligently and browse your website to identify the tone people expect to see in their inbox or in the voice of someone who answers the phone.

Medical Practice Email Marketing by DLM

At Digital Limelight Media, we’ve been helping medical practices hone and enhance their email marketing playbooks for over a decade. With tools like email automation that automatically places website leads into a drip campaign, as well as a CRM to manage your contacts and segment them appropriately, our proprietary email marketing software is custom-built for practices like yours. Call or contact us online today to learn more about email marketing and our specialty tool, DLM Insight, and our team of expert marketers that enables you to do more with less effort.